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Moving forward on marijuana law: What's next?

By Erika Stutzman

Posted:
11/29/2012 01:00:00 AM MST

So, what do you know about legalized marijuana?

If your answer is anything more substantial than "not much" you've got a mighty high opinion of yourself. Most people, from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to Mexico President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto, point out that there are more unknowns than what is known at this point in time.

Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 this month, starting a path to the legal, recreational use of marijuana. Medical marijuana is already legal in the state for those with a medical marijuana card. Voters in Washington state also legalized recreational pot, leaving it illegal in 48 states.

Or is it 50? Marijuana is still against federal laws, and it is quite unclear how the federal government is going to deal with new legislation. On one hand, thousands of people are smoking medical marijuana. And some dispensaries are thriving.

On the other hand, the U.S. Attorney's office issued waves of warnings to dispensaries near schools, resulting in the shutdown (or relocation) of dozens of dispensaries in Colorado. This is notable because zoning laws are typically left to local municipalities. The federal government relied on federal drug laws, even here.

And the federal government has so far given no clarity on how it's going to handle the legalization in Colorado or Washington.

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What we do know: On Wednesday, Hickenlooper said, "We are working to create a task force to identify the policy, legal and procedural issues that need to be resolved related to Amendment 64. The task force will be charged with offering suggestions for legislative and executive actions that need to be taken for the effective and efficient implementation of the amendment. The task force will include lawmakers, state agency representatives, stakeholders, marijuana advocates and others. We expect to have more details about the task force ready to announce soon."

Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would allow state legislation to trump federal legislation when it comes to marijuana. That would likely lead to states looking to Colorado as a harbinger of what to do -- or as a cautionary tale.

While we are in favor of decriminalizing adult use of marijuana, we did not side with Amendment 64 because it was a poorly crafted policy. But it is part of our constitution now. As it moves forward, we hope that its implementation goes smoothly -- and that will need transparency on the part of the federal government.

Washington D.C. owes that transparency to the voters in Colorado and Washington state, sooner rather than later.

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